A StarNewsOnline Blog

The emporium for all things literary

Nominations open Wednesday (Nov. 15) for the job of North Carolina poet laureate, the official state poet and ambassador at large for Tar Heel literature. The new candidate will be replacing Shelby Stephenson, whose two-year term expires in February. (The two-year term is apparently an answer to the dilemma of James Larkin Pearson, who was appointed poet laureate in 1953 and held onto the job until his death in 1981, at the age of 101.) The job comes with a… Read More »

About This Blog

This is an emporium for all things literary: occasional book reviews, local book news, items about authors (mostly from the Cape Fear area but occasional visitors) and miscellaneous rants.

The usual author is Ben Steelman, feature writer and book columnist for the Star-News. He’s that shaggy, slightly smelly character you spot lurking in the back aisles of your local bookstore. Physically, he has more than a passing resemblance to Ignatius J. Reilly, hero of John Kennedy Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces” — some observers have noted other parallels as well.